Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC) Zhōu Cháo; Chou Ch'ao was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji (Chinese: 姬) family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as the Western Zhou.During the Zhou Dynasty, the use of iron was introduced to China, though this period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making. The dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. History Zhou Dynasty Foundation According to Chinese legend, the Zhou lineage began with Emperor Ku and proceeded from him to Qi, Buku, Ju, and then Gongliu, before Gugong Danfu moved the Zhou clan from Bin (豳 or 邠) to an area in the Wei River valley, where they founded a town that became central to the Zhou clan's growing prosperity. Gugong Danfu's son, Jili, fought against the Rong as a vassal of the Shang Dynasty's King Wen Ding until the king killed him. Jili's son, King Wen of Zhou, moved the Zhou capital downstream to Fenghao.[[|e]] Around 1046 BC, Wen's son, King Wu of Zhou, led an army of 45,000 men and 300 chariots across the Yellow River and defeated the Shang King Di Xin at the Battle of Muye, marking the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty.[[|f]] Dynasties Western and Eastern Zhou Further information: Western Zhou[[|]]EnlargeStates of the Western Zhou DynastyThough King Wu died just a few years after the Battle of Muye, the Duke of Zhou assisted the young and inexperienced King Cheng in consolidating power for the Ji line: he managed a war against rebellious Zhou princes in the eastern lowlands (allied with feudal rulers and Shang remnants);[[|5]][[|6]] formulated the Mandate of Heaven doctrine to counter Shang claims to a divine right of rule; founded Chengzhou as an eastern capital;[[|7]] and set up the fengjian "feudal" system designed to maintain Zhou authority as it expanded its rule over a larger amount of territory.[[|5]] However, this decentralized system became strained as the familial relationship between Zhou Kings and regional rulers thinned over generations and peripheral territories developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou.[[|8]] When King You replaced Queen Shen with the concubine Baosi (and designated Baosì's son as the crown prince), the former queen’s powerful father, the Marquess of Shen, joined forces with Quanrong to sack the western capital of Haojing in 770 BC. Nobles from Zheng, Lu, Qin, Xu, and Shen declared the Marquess's grandson, Ji Yijiu, as the new king. The capital was moved eastward in 770 BC from Haojing to Chengzhou. Because of this shift, historians divide the Zhou era into the Western Zhou (Chinese: 西周; pinyin: Xī Zhōu), lasting up until 771 BC, and the Eastern Zhou (Chinese: 東周; pinyin: Dōng Zhōu) from 770 up to 256 BC. The Eastern Zhou period, characterized by a breakup of Zhou territory into states that were essentially independent, is further divided into two sub-periods. The first, from 722 to 481 BC, is called the Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical chronicle of the time; the second is known as the Warring States Period (403–221 BC), after another famous chronicle and initiated by the partitioning of Jin. The Eastern Zhou period is also designated as the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, a golden age of influential cultural and intellectual expansion facilitated by relative freedom of expression. Although there were a host of schools, four of them came to influence Chinese government and culture in meaningful ways: Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Legalism. The changes brought on played a large part in the decline of the Zhou dynasty. Zhou Dynasty's Decline With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished, and the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. From King Ping's reign onwards, the Zhou kings ruled in name only, with true power lying in the hands of regional nobles. Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles did not even bother to symbolically acknowledge loyalty to the Ji family, declaring themselves to be independent kings. The dynasty ended in 256 BC when the last king of Zhou died and none of his sons claimed the nominal title of King of China. Qin Shi Huang's unification of China concluded in 221 BC with the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. Zhou Dynasty Culture and society Zhou Dynasty Feudalism and the rise of Confucian bureaucracy EnlargeA Western Zhou ceremonial bronze of cooking-vessel form inscribed to record that the King of Zhou gave a fiefdom to Shi You, ordering that he inherit the title as well as the land and people living thereWestern writers often describe the Zhou period as "feudal" because the Zhou's early rule invites comparison with medieval rule in Europe. There were five peerage ranks below the royal ranks, in descending order with common English translations: gōng 公 "duke", hóu 侯 "marquis", bó 伯 "count", zǐ 子 "viscount" (also extensively used as an honorific) and nán 男 "baron".[[|10]] Despite some similarities in the decentralized system there are a number of important differences from medieval Europe. One obvious difference is that the Zhou ruled from walled cities rather than castles. The Chinese term for the Zhou system is fēngjiàn (封建). When the dynasty was established, the conquered land was divided into hereditary fiefs that eventually became powerful in their own right. The fiefs or states themselves tended to become feudally subdivided. At times, a vigorous duke would take power from his nobles and centralize the state. Centralization became more necessary as the states began to war among themselves and decentralization encouraged more war. If a duke took power from his nobles, the state would have to be administered bureaucratically by appointed officials. The lowest rank of the Zhou ruling class was called Shi (士). When a dukedom was centralized these people would find employment as government officials or officers. In contrast to Western chivalry, the Shi was expected to be something of a scholar. Being appointed, they could move from one state to another. Some would travel from state to state peddling schemes of administrative or military reform. Those who could not find employment would often end up teaching young men who aspired to official status. The most famous of these was Confucius, who taught a system of mutual duty between superiors and inferiors. In contrast, the Legalists had no time for Confucian virtue and advocated a system of strict laws and harsh punishments. The wars of the Warring States were finally ended by the most legalist state of all, Qin. When the Qin Dynasty fell and was replaced by the Han Dynasty, many Chinese were relieved to return to the more humane virtues of Confucius. Zhou Dynasty Military section The early Western Zhou supported a strong army, split into two major units: "the Six Armies of the west" and "the Eight Armies of Chengzhou". The armies campaigned in the northern Loess Plateau, modern Ningxia and the Yellow River floodplain. The military prowess of Zhou peaked during the 19th year of King Zhao's reign, when the six armies were wiped out along with King Zhao on a campaign around the Han River. Early Zhou kings were true commanders-in-chief. They were in constant wars with barbarians on behalf of the fiefs called guo, meaning "statelet" or "principality." King Zhao was famous for repeated campaigns in the Yangtze areas and died in his last action. Later kings' campaigns were less effective. King Li led 14 armies against barbarians in the south, but failed to achieve any victory. King Xuan fought the Quanrong nomads in vain. King You was killed by the Quanrong when Haojing was sacked. Although chariots had been introduced to China during the Shang Dynasty from Central Asia, the Zhou period saw the first major use of chariots in battle.[[|11]][[|12]] Zhou Dynasty's Mandate of Heaven EnlargeA Western Zhou bronze gui vessel, c. 1000 BCIn the Chinese historical tradition, the Zhou defeated the Shang and oriented the Shang system of ancestor worship towards a universalized worship, away from the worship of Shangdi and to that of Tian or "heaven". They legitimized their rule by invoking the "Mandate of Heaven," the notion that the ruler (the "Son of Heaven") governed by divine right and that his dethronement would prove that he had lost the Mandate. Disasters and successful rebellions would thus show that the ruling family had lost this Mandate. The doctrine explained and justified the demise of the Xia and Shang dynasties and, at the same time, supported the legitimacy of present and future rulers. Before conquering Shang, Zhou was a state in Shaanxi. [[|Gernet (1996]]:51) describes the Zhou state as a "city" which was in contact with the barbarian peoples of the western regions and more warlike than the Shang. The Zhou dynasty was founded by the Ji family and operated from four capitals throughout its history.[[|13]] Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, established a large imperial territory wherein states as far as Shandong acknowledged Zhou rulership and took part in elite culture. The spread of Zhou bronzes, though, was concurrent with the continued use of Shang-style pottery in the distant regions, and these states were the last to recede during the late Western war. The mandate of heaven was based on rules. The emperor was granted the right to rule by heaven. Zhou Dynasty Philosophy During the Zhou Dynasty, the origins of native Chinese philosophy developed, its initial stages beginning in the 6th century BC. The greatest Chinese philosophers, those who made the greatest impact on later generations of Chinese, were Confucius, founder of Confucianism, and Laozi, founder of Taoism. Other philosophers, theorists, and schools of thought in this era were Mozi, founder of Mohism; Mencius, a famous Confucian who expanded upon Confucius' legacy; Shang Yang and Han Fei, responsible for the development of ancient Chinese Legalism (the core philosophy of the Qin Dynasty); and Xun Zi, who was arguably the center of ancient Chinese intellectual life during his time, even more so than iconic intellectual figures such as Mencius.[[|14]] Zhou Dynasty Li section Main article: Li (Confucian)Established during the Western period, the Li traditional Chinese: 禮; simplified Chinese: 礼; pinyin: lǐ) ritual system encoded an understanding of manners as an expression of the social hierarchy, ethics, and regulation concerning material life; the corresponding social practices became idealized within Confucian ideology. The system was canonized in the Book of Rites, ''Zhouli'', and ''Yili'' compendiums of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. While the system was initially a respected body of concrete regulations, the fragmentation of the Western Zhou period led the ritual to drift towards moralization and formalization in regard to: *The five orders of Chinese nobility. *Ancestral temples (size, legitimate number of pavilions) *Ceremonial regulations (number of ritual vessels, musical instruments, people in the dancing troupe) Zhou Agriculture EnlargeZhou vase with glass inlays, 4th-3rd century BC, British Museum.Agriculture in the Zhou Dynasty was very intensive and, in many cases, directed by the government. All farming lands were owned by nobles, who then gave their land to their serfs, a situation similar to European feudalism. For example, a piece of land was divided into nine squares in the well-field system, with the grain from the middle square taken by the government and that of surrounding squares kept by individual farmers. This way, the government was able to store surplus food and distribute it in times of famine or bad harvest. Some important manufacturing sectors during this period included bronze smelting, which was integral to making weapons and farming tools. Again, these industries were dominated by the nobility who directed the production of such materials. China's first projects of hydraulic engineering were initiated during the Zhou Dynasty, ultimately as a means to aid agricultural irrigation. The chancellor of Wei, Sunshu Ao, who served King Zhuang of Chu, dammed a river to create an enormous irrigation reservoir in modern-day northern Anhui province. For this, Sunshu is credited as China's first hydraulic engineer. The later Wei statesman Ximen Bao, who served Marquis Wen of Wei (445-396 BC), was the first hydraulic engineer of China to have created a large irrigation canal system. As the main focus of his grandiose project, his canal work eventually diverted the waters of the entire Zhang River to a spot further up the Yellow River. edit] Western Zhou *[[]]Defang bronze ritual vessel *[[]]Dake bronze ritual vessel *[[]]You bronze ritual vessel *[[]]Qizhong Hu bronze vessel *[[]]Bronze mirror holder c. 1000 BC (Hainan Provincial Museum) edit] Spring and Autumn period *[[]]Dou vessel with a hunting scene *[[]]A bo bell of the Duke of Qin *[[]]Pu vessel with dragon designs *[[]]bronze ding vessel *[[]]bronze musical bell *[[]]bronze vessels (rightmost from Western Zhou) *[[]]A square bronze hu vessel *[[]]bronze bird-shaped wine server *[[]]Western Zhou Dynasty musical bronze bell *[[]]Silk painting of a man railing a dragon, 6th century BC edit] Warring States periodedit] Warring States periodedit] Warring States period section|Edit]]edit] Warring States periodedit] Warring States period section|Edit]] section|Edit]] section|Edit]] *[[]]bronze ritual food vessel (ding) with lacquer design, 5th-4th century BC *[[]]A jade bi with two dragons *[[]]embroidered silk gauze garment from a 4th century BC tomb at Mashan, Hubei province *[[]]bronze and silver canteen Zhou Dynasty Kings Section Below dates are those published by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project (dates in Chinese history before the first year of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC are contentious). Nobles of the Ji family proclaimed Duke Hui of Eastern Zhou as King Nan's successor after their capital, Chengzhou, fell to Qin forces in 256 BC. Ji Zhao, a son of King Nan led a resistance against Qin for five years. The dukedom fell in 249 BC. The remaining Ji family ruled Yan and Wei until 209 BC. Zhou in astronomy Zhou is represented by two stars, Eta Capricorni (周一 Zhōu yī, "the First Star of Zhou") and 21 Capricorni (周二 Zhōu èr, "the Second Star of Zhou"), in "Twelve States" asterism.[[|15]] Zhou is also represented by the star Beta Serpentis in asterism "Right Wall", Heavenly Market enclosure (see Chinese constellation). The Han Zhao (simplified Chinese: 汉赵; traditional Chinese: 漢趙; pinyin: Hànzhào; 304-329), or Former Zhao, or Northern Han (北漢), was a Southern Xiongnu state during Sixteen Kingdoms period coeval with the Chinese Jin Dynasty. In the Chinese historiography it was given two conditional state titles, the Han state (漢, pinyin Hàn) for the state proclaimed in 304 by Liu Yuan, and the Former Zhao state (前趙, pinyin Qiánzhào) for the state proclaimed in 319 by Liu Yao. The reference to them as separate states should be considered clearly erroneous, given that when Liu Yao changed the name of the state from Han to Zhao in 319, he treated the state as having been continuous from the time that Liu Yuan founded it in 304; instead, he de-established royal lineage to the Han Dynasty and claimed ancestry directly from Yu the Great of the Xia Dynasty. The reason it was also referred to as Former Zhao was that when the powerful general Shi Le broke away and formed his own state in 319, later it was also conditionally named Zhao as well, and so in the Chinese historiography Shi Le's state was referred to as Later Zhao.) Since they both were ruled by partially sinicized Xiongnu with a Chinese throne name Liu, the Chinese scholars often conditionally combined them into a single Han Zhao state. Numerous western texts refer to the two states separately; others referred to the Han state as the Northern Han, a confusing nomenclature as the term also refers to the Northern Han in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. All rulers of the Han Zhao were titled emperors. Han Zhao rulers were all extremely intelligent and articulate, but some lacked self-control and demonstrated excessive cruelty on the battle field. Particularly typical of this pattern of behavior was Liu Cong (Emperor Zhaowu), who was clearly able to discern good strategical plans from bad. He would sometimes indulge himself on wine and women, and his patterns of erratic behavior often resulted in deaths of honest officials. Han Zhao was considered to be a state that never fully realized its potential,it had a right mix of talent among its officials, and its armies were extremely powerful especially when utilized properly, but it would not always complete the conquests that its emperors envisioned, and eventually fell to its formal general Shi Le. The Han Zhao armies sacked the Jin dynastic capitals of Luoyang in 311 and Chang'an in 316. Emperor Huai and Emperor Min of the Jin were captured, humiliated and executed. Remnants of the Jin court fled to Jiankang, located east of Luoyang and Chang'an, and founded the so-called Eastern Jin Dynasty, under Sima Rui a Prince of Langye, later he adopted a title Emperor Yuan. In 318, Liu Can and the state ruling family at Pingyang were toppled and executed by the Coup d'état of Jin Zhun, who was in turn overthrown by Shi Le and Liu Yao. Liu Yao, as an imperial prince, claimed the throne and changed the dynastic name from Han to Zhao. The Han Zhao dynasty lasted until 329, when Shi Le defeated Liu Yao at the river Luo. Liu Yao was captured and executed; his sons agreed to join Shi Le forces, and Shi Le became de-facto head of the Southern Xiongnu state. The Condition of the Xiongnu in Northern China and their uprising of the Zhao DynastyEditEdit By the 280s, a huge number (approximately 400,000) of Xiongnu herdsmen resided in the Ordos Desert and Bing, a political division including modern-day areas of the whole Shanxi province, southwestern part of Inner Mongolia and eastern part of Shaanxi province, after Cao Cao moved them there and split them into "five departments" (五部, pinyin Wǔbù). The Southern Xiongnu continued their nomadic lifestyles of the steppes with horse breeding and to some extent agriculture. In spite of significant loss of Chinese sedentary population, the Chinese portion of the population in the state is estimated to be around 1,500,000. In addition to the Southern Xiongnu nomads, the state numbered 1,000,000 of other nomadic tribes, mainly Jie, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang, for a total of approximately 1,400,000 nomadic population, or 200 thousand yurts.[[|5]] The position of the Chinese farmers changed drastically, the accent of economic production shifted from grain agriculture to animal husbandry, much of the arable land was converted to pastures, huge tracts of land were reserved for traditional encircling hunts, and abuse and exploitation of the nomadic "aliens" had stopped. In addition, endless wars needed vast supplies of materials and people, and the brunt of the wars fell heavily on the Chinese farmers, who had to report to the assembly points fully equipped with arms, provisions, and draft wagons, following the regulations applied to the nomadic forces. In 340, Shi Jilong set the target number of troops and materials at 500 thousand troops, 10 thousand ships, 11 million hu of grain and beans, and about half of the farm draft animals were requisitioned. Shi Jilong also promulgated a ban on keeping farm horses, over 40,000 horses were confiscated, along with over 20,000 oxen.[[|6]] In accordance with Jin-shu, the Southern Xiongnu were organized into 19 pastoral rout communities, one of which was a tribe Qianqui (Qiang Qu), and another was their offshoot Jie.[[|7]][[|8]] Sinicization was evident, especially among the elite; Liu Yuan, a head of the Left Wing (左部, pinyin Zuǒbù), a hereditary position of the successor to the throne, was educated at Luoyang, a capital of the Jin Dynasty, and was proficient in the Chinese literature, history, military strategies and tactics, he had an expertise of a perfect person in the classical sense. Speculations had recounted that Liu Yuan was once considered the post of the Jin forces commander for the conquest of the Kingdom of Wu; that consideration was later dropped because of his Xiongnu ethnicity. Nonetheless, among the Xiongnu elite and herdsmen, including Liu Yuan himself, a keen sense of separate identity from the Chinese was retained. Most herdsmen still kept their horseback raiding and combat skills. Discontent against the Jin dynastic rule and of their subordinate position prompted them to seek an independent or self-governing Xiongnu entity. As one of the elite adequately put it, "since the fall of Han [Dynasty], [of Wei|[Kingdom of Wei]] and Jin Dynasty have risen one after the other. Although our Xiongnu king (Shanyu) had been given a nominal hereditary title, he no longer has a single foothold of sovereign territory." Developments in the War of the Eight Princes (also known as the Rebellion of the Eight Kings) finally favored the Xiongnu. Liu Yuan took advantage of a commission from the desperate Prince of Chengdu (Sima Ying), who was just being driven out of his base at Ye (near modern-day Linzhang County ch. 临漳县, Hebei province) to gather 50,000 Xiongnu warriors. Liu Yuan then proceeded to proclaim himself the "King of Han," the same title used centuries ago by Liu Bang (later Emperor Gao of Han and the founder of Han Dynasty) - a deliberate adoption of the long fallen Han Dynasty based on the earlier intermarriages of Xiongnu shanyu and Han princesses to render the Jin and Wei usurpers. Liu fully wished that such legitimist stance would earn him substantial support from the Chinese elite. His motives also explained the extent of his adoption of the ideology and political practices from the same elite. Nevertheless such proclamation was to remain titular - his war effort would eventually outdo his legitimist plan. His Han state attracted the support of some chieftains of other non-Chinese Xianbei and Di and certain bandit forces including those of an ex-slave Shi Le of the Jie ethnicity. However the neighboring Tuoba tribe, the powerful Xianbei nomads in modern-day Inner Mongolia and northern parts of Shanxi province, intruded into the Xiongnu residence of the Han State under their chieftain Tuoba Yilu (拓拔猗盧, pinyin Tuòbá Yīlú). A powerful Xiongnu state would dash Tuoba's hope of migrating into the region. On one hand the Tuoba would hence assist the Jin governor of Bing to launch counteroffensive against the Han state. On the other hand Xiongnu cavalry, successful in plundering the countryside, failed to capture the fortified Jinyang (modern-day Taiyuan city, the provincial capital of the Shanxi province), the provincial capital of Bing even though the former governor Sima Teng had fled to the North China Plain and left a mess. Liu Kun, the new governor, reorganized the defense and exploited the feud between the Han and the Tuoba to his advantage. His biography is in Jinshu 62. Allegiance between the Jin court and the Tuoba was sealed - five prefectures were rewarded in 310 to Tuoba Yilu, who was also made the Prince of Dai. The areas around Jinyang would remain in Jin hands until the death of Tuoba Yilu in 316 when Jinyang was captured after a disastrous counteroffensive. Liu Kun fled but was later murdered by a Xianbei chieftain Duan Pidi. By 309, The Xiongnu armies defeated the Jin armies on the field and pushed all the way up to the gates of Luoyang. Rulers of Zhao Note: Liu Xi was Liu Yao's crown prince who was thrust into the leadership role when Liu Yao was captured by Later Zhao's emperor Shi Le, but he never took the imperial title. An army lead by Xu Province. As a result, a very large number of common people living there were massacred by Cao's army. Rebellion by Zhang Miao within Cao's own territory forced him to retreat before he could do conclusive battle with Tao. Tao Mililita was instrumental in the rise of Liu Bei in that when Liu came to his help, Tao Qian provided Liu with several thousand troops of Danyang (丹阳兵), the crack troop among all warlords. Liu Yao's Militia is an allied force of Zhao Dynasty against The Eastern Wu Liu Yao's Militia (劉繇軍) is a military faction led by the administrator Liu Yong to counter Sun Ce's invasion on the Wu Territory. In Dynasty Warriors 5, the soldiers of this army wear green whereas those led by the bandit leader Yan Baihu are decked in white. Fearful of Sun Ce and his former ally Yuan Shu, Liu Yong sought to strengthen his hold over Eastern Wu by forming an alliance with Yan Baihu and Wang Lang. His battle with Sun Ce led to numerous casualties for both sides. But in the end, it was the Little Conqueror's army that won out due to inadequate military decisions made by Liu Yong. At the behest of Taishi Ci, the remnants of Liu Yong's army were then absorbed into Sun Ce's troops, thus enlarging the forces of what would be known as Wu. Army The Han Zhao (simplified Chinese: 汉赵; traditional Chinese: 漢趙; pinyin: Hànzhào; 304-329), or Former Zhao, or'Northern Han' (北漢), was a Southern Xiongnu state duringSixteen Kingdoms period coeval with the Chinese Jin Dynasty (265-420). In the Chinese historiography it was given two conditional state titles, the Han state (漢, pinyinHàn) for the state proclaimed in 304 by Liu Yuan, and the'Former Zhao' state (前趙, pinyin Qiánzhào) for the state proclaimed in 319 by Liu Yao. The reference to them as separate states should be considered clearly erroneous, given that when Liu Yao changed the name of the state from Han to Zhao in 319, he treated the state as having been continuous from the time that Liu Yuan founded it in 304; instead, he de-established royal lineage to the Han Dynastyand claimed ancestry directly from Yu the Great of the Xia Dynasty. The reason it was also referred to as Former Zhao was that when the powerful general Shi Le broke away and formed his own state in 319, later it was also conditionally named Zhao as well, and so in the Chinese historiography Shi Le's state was referred to as Later Zhao.) Since they both were ruled by partially sinicizedXiongnu with a Chinese throne name Liu, the Chinese scholars often conditionally combined them into a single Han Zhao state. Numerous western texts refer to the two states separately; others referred to the Han state as theNorthern Han, a confusing nomenclature as the term also refers to the Northern Han in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. All rulers of the Han Zhao were titled emperors. Han Zhao rulers were all extremely intelligent and articulate, but some lacked self-control and demonstrated excessive cruelty on the battle field. Particularly typical of this pattern of behavior was Liu Cong (Emperor Zhaowu), who was clearly able to discern good strategical plans from bad. He would sometimes indulge himself on wine and women, and his patterns of erratic behavior often resulted in deaths of honest officials. Han Zhao was considered to be a state that never fully realized its potential,it had a right mix of talent among its officials, and its armies were extremely powerful especially when utilized properly, but it would not always complete the conquests that its emperors envisioned, and eventually fell to its formal general Shi Le. The Han Zhao armies sacked the Jin dynastic capitals of Luoyang in 311 and Chang'an in 316. Emperor Huai andEmperor Min of the Jin were captured, humiliated and executed. Remnants of the Jin court fled to Jiankang, located east of Luoyang and Chang'an, and founded the so-called Eastern Jin Dynasty, under Sima Rui a Prince of Langye, later he adopted a title Emperor Yuan. In 318, Liu Can and the state ruling family at Pingyang were toppled and executed by the coup d'etat of Jin Zhun, who was in turn overthrown by Shi Le and Liu Yao. Liu Yao, as an imperial prince, claimed the throne and changed the dynastic name from Han to Zhao. The Han Zhao dynasty lasted until 329, when Shi Le defeated Liu Yao at the river Luo. Liu Yao was captured and executed; his sons agreed to join Shi Le forces, and Shi Le became de-facto head of the Southern Xiongnu state. edit] The Condition of the Xiongnu in Northern China and their uprisingEdit By the 280s, a huge number (approximately 400,000) of Xiongnu herdsmen resided in the Ordos Desert and Bing, a political division including modern-day areas of the whole Shanxi province, southwestern part of Inner Mongolia and eastern part of Shaanxi province, after Cao Cao moved them there and split them into "five departments" (五部, pinyin Wǔbù). The Southern Xiongnu continued their nomadic lifestyles of the steppes with horse breeding and to some extent agriculture. In spite of significant loss of Chinese sedentary population, the Chinese portion of the population in the state is estimated to be around 1,500,000. In addition to the Southern Xiongnu nomads, the state numbered 1,000,000 of other nomadic tribes, mainly Jie, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang, for a total of approximately 1,400,000 nomadic population, or 200 thousand yurts.[[|5]] The position of the Chinese farmers changed drastically, the accent of economic production shifted from grain agriculture to animal husbandry, much of the arable land was converted to pastures, huge tracts of land were reserved for traditional encircling hunts, and abuse and exploitation of the nomadic "aliens" had stopped. In addition, endless wars needed vast supplies of materials and people, and the brunt of the wars fell heavily on the Chinese farmers, who had to report to the assembly points fully equipped with arms, provisions, and draft wagons, following the regulations applied to the nomadic forces. In 340, Shi Jilong set the target number of troops and materials at 500 thousand troops, 10 thousand ships, 11 million hu of grain and beans, and about half of the farm draft animals were requisitioned. Shi Jilong also promulgated a ban on keeping farm horses, over 40,000 horses were confiscated, along with over 20,000 oxen.[[|6]] In accordance with Jin-shu, the Southern Xiongnu were organized into 19 pastoral rout communities, one of which was a tribe Qianqui (Qiang Qu), and another was their offshoot Jie.[[|7]][[|8]] Sinicization was evident, especially among the elite; Liu Yuan, a head of the Left Wing (左部, pinyin Zuǒbù), a hereditary position of the successor to the throne, was educated at Luoyang, a capital of the Jin Dynasty, and was proficient in the Chinese literature, history, military strategies and tactics, he had an expertise of a perfect person in the classical sense. Speculations had recounted that Liu Yuan was once considered the post of the Jin forces commander for the conquest of the Kingdom of Wu; that consideration was later dropped because of his Xiongnu ethnicity. Nonetheless, among the Xiongnu elite and herdsmen, including Liu Yuan himself, a keen sense of separate identity from the Chinese was retained. Most herdsmen still kept their horseback raiding and combat skills. Discontent against the Jin dynastic rule and of their subordinate position prompted them to seek an independent or self-governing Xiongnu entity. As one of the elite adequately put it, "since the fall of Han [Dynasty], [Kingdom of Wei]and Jin Dynasty have risen one after the other. Although our Xiongnu king (Shanyu) had been given a nominal hereditary title, he no longer has a single foothold of sovereign territory." Developments in the War of the Eight Princes (also known as the Rebellion of the Eight Kings) finally favored the Xiongnu. Liu Yuan took advantage of a commission from the desperate Prince of Chengdu (Sima Ying), who was just being driven out of his base at Ye (near modern-day Linzhang County ch. 临漳县, Hebei province) to gather 50,000 Xiongnu warriors. Liu Yuan then proceeded to proclaim himself the "King of Han," the same title used centuries ago by Liu Bang (later Emperor Gao of Han and the founder of Han Dynasty) - a deliberate adoption of the long fallen Han Dynasty based on the earlier intermarriages of Xiongnu shanyu and Han princesses to render the Jin and Wei usurpers. Liu fully wished that such legitimist stance would earn him substantial support from the Chinese elite. His motives also explained the extent of his adoption of the ideology and political practices from the same elite. Nevertheless such proclamation was to remain titular - his war effort would eventually outdo his legitimist plan. His Han state attracted the support of some chieftains of other non-Chinese Xianbei and Di and certain bandit forces including those of an ex-slave Shi Le of the Jie ethnicity. However the neighboring Tuoba tribe, the powerful Xianbei nomads in modern-day Inner Mongolia and northern parts of Shanxi province, intruded into the Xiongnu residence of the Han State under their chieftain Tuoba Yilu (拓拔猗盧, pinyin Tuòbá Yīlú). A powerful Xiongnu state would dash Tuoba's hope of migrating into the region. On one hand the Tuoba would hence assist the Jin governor of Bing to launch counteroffensive against the Han state. On the other hand Xiongnu cavalry, successful in plundering the countryside, failed to capture the fortified Jinyang (modern-day Taiyuan city, the provincial capital of the Shanxi province), the provincial capital of Bing even though the former governor Sima Teng had fled to the North China Plain and left a mess. Liu Kun, the new governor, reorganized the defense and exploited the feud between the Han and the Tuoba to his advantage. His biography is inJinshu 62. Allegiance between the Jin court and the Tuoba was sealed - five prefectures were rewarded in 310 to Tuoba Yilu, who was also made the Prince of Dai. The areas around Jinyang would remain in Jin hands until the death of Tuoba Yilu in 316 when Jinyang was captured after a disastrous counteroffensive. Liu Kun fled but was later murdered by a Xianbei chieftain Duan Pidi. By 309, The Xiongnu armies defeated the Jin armies on the field and pushed all the way up to the gates of Luoyang. edit] Rulers of the Han ZhaoEdit Note: Liu Xi was Liu Yao's crown prince who was thrust into the leadership role when Liu Yao was captured by Later Zhao's emperor Shi Le, but he never took the imperial title. Generals *Tao Qian *Liu Bei *Zhang Fei *Zhao Yun *Cao Xing *Cao Chun *Chen Deng *Chen Gui *Ji Lian *Jian Yong *Liu You *Liu Kui *Mi Zhu *Que Xuan *Sun Qian *Wang Lang *Wu Fan *Zang Ba *Ze Rong *Zhang Kai *Zhao Yu *Zheng Xuan *Lü Bu *Zhang Liao *Chen Heng *Fan Neng *Hua Xin *Shi Yi *Sun Shao *Taishi Ci *Tang Zi *Wang Zuo *Wang Lang *Xu Gong *Xu Shao *Xue Li *Yan Baihu *Yan Yu *Yu Fan *Yu Mi *Ze Rong *Zhang Ying *Zhou Xin *Zhu Hao RelationsEditEdit AlliesEditEdit *Yuan Shu (Before Liu Yong's revolt) EnemiesEditEdit *Sun Ce *Yuan Shu (After Liu Yong's revolt) Category:Organizations